Generally, if it's a real fire and you're not on the ground in 18 minutes, you're dead.
It seems too common that either it's not a real fire (so landing at the nearest suitable airport wouldn't have changed anything) or that it IS a real fire and the plane crashes (UPS; Asiana.) Not very often (only Air Canada 797 comes to mind and although it was on the ground 20 minutes after smoke was verified, 50% of the people on the plane died before they could evacuate) does a plane that is REALLY on fire get on the ground before it crashes.
Wonder why they would not land in Fargo (9,000 foot runway; 90 nm from turn-around point) or Grand Forks Air Force Base (12,351 foot runway; 104 nm from turn-around point) rather than flying 180nm to Winnipeg.
The only item of consideration which would pertain to this situation is crew familiarity with the airport. How important is that when you're on fire?
I wasn't there. I'm only looking for healthy debate. However, this being PPRuNe, I'm predicting that the first response to this post will be far from healthy.